Mexican-American / Americanization School

A reporter's visit in 1947 gave the school for Abilene's Mexican American children a blunt verdict: the worst campus in town. Seven rooms held about 215 pupils, with poor lighting, a sagging foundation and broken windows. For years the school year ran only five months, fitted around field work, and in 1953 the board moved the start to fall after 72 percent of Hispanic parents said they preferred it. The principal, John Hutto, noted that most pupils did not go on, and those who did were often steered toward vocational courses.

What the plaque says

Mexican-American / Americanization School From its earliest days, education for Mexican Americans in Texas has varied from none at all to apparent equality. The Republic of Texas in 1839 and 1840 established laws governing a system of schools. As these institutions took shape, Mexican American students often were segregated, encountering racial, social and economic discrimination, ideological differences and political tensions. Private and parochial schools, in addition to the public schools attended by Anglos, served Mexican Americans in Abilene until the turn of the 20th century. By 1910 a public school was established specifically for Mexican American children in grades one through six. An "Americanization" school opened in 1920; it was relocated to 541 North 8th Street in 1936 and remained in operation until 1948. Facilities for Mexican American children in Texas cities like Abilene often were inferior to those maintained for Anglos; equipment and materials were substandard. Some Mexican American students in Abilene attended the Anglo schools closest to their homes. Sam Houston School opened in 1949 and served Mexican American students until 1979. Mexican American students from this neighborhood attended integrated elementary schools. Attitudes and philosophy began to change in the late 20th century as Abilenians of Mexican American descent achieved higher levels of education and became active participants in community life, and other Abilenians became aware of the vital importance of Texas' diverse heritage. Sam Houston School became a district-wide student achievement center in 1979. (1999)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Frontier Texas! — 0.4 mi
  Abilene's multimedia museum of the frontier as the settlers told it, beside the Texas and Pacific tracks the town was built on, and the official visitor center for the Texas Forts Trail.
• Buffalo Gap Historic Village — 13 mi
  The 1880 stone courthouse and jail of the county seat Abilene took away, with about twenty old buildings from around West Texas gathered around it since 1956.
• Fort Phantom Hill — 13 mi
  A field of lone stone chimneys north of Abilene, left by the fire after the Army left in 1854, later a stage stop and a buffalo-hide town of more than 500 people.
• Abilene State Park — 18 mi
  A pecan-shaded park on Elm Creek in the Callahan Divide south of Abilene, with red sandstone CCC buildings, a summer pool, a bird blind and yurts under the trees.

More markers nearby

• New Light Missionary Baptist Church — steps away
• Macedonia Baptist Church — 0.2 mi
• Willis, Thomas Middlebrook — 0.2 mi
• Claiborne Walker Merchant — 0.2 mi